POLITICIANS may find a good motivator to campaign their platforms and agenda even to the smallest corners of every registered voter’s abode, thanks to the mock elections organized by two universities.

In Cagayan de Oro City, two schools held their mock polls this month: first was in Xavier University-Ateneo de Cagayan (XU) and recently, Mindanao University of Science and Technology (MUST).

In both schools, Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte remained consistent in topping the presidential race: 65.13 percent in XU, and 72.40 percent in MUST. However in the vice presidential post, Rep. Leni Robredo topped in XU with 27.17 percent, while it was Senator Alan Peter Cayetano in MUST with 46.05 percent.

In the Senatorial race, Juan Miguel Zubiri was a topnotcher for both schools: 72.41 percent in XU, and 69.35 percent in MUST. But what was interesting was the votes ranked Rep. Manny Pacquiao in the “Magic 12,” he was out of the loop in MUST and replaced by Rep. Sherwin Gatchalian (perhaps “nakilala nila si Win Gatchalian”).

But what was more thrilling was the result in Cagayan de Oro’s Mayoral and Vice-Mayoral posts.The result of the mock polls could explain and probably affirm some assumptions and even suspicions.

While XU named incumbent Mayor Oscar Moreno as topnotcher with 42.93 percent, his rival, Rep. Rufus Rodriguez was the apparent “victor” in MUST with 50.62 percent.For vice mayor, re-electionist Ian Acenas leads XU with 35.64 percent, but it was councilor Roger Abaday who emerged on top in MUST with 39.42 percent.

The mock polls in XU were participated by 1,428 members of the XU community (10 percent of the entire population) while in MUST a total of 1,116 participated (11.6 percent of the entire population).

In XU, the organizers of the mock polls belong to Xavier University’s Kristohanong Katilingban sa Pagpakabana – Social Involvement Office (KKP-SIO), the university’s social advocacy arm; while in MUST, the Supreme Student Council spearheaded the activity. MUST also had two versions of mock elections - one was online and the other one on manual counting of ballots. The figures presented here come from the manual counting.

You can check further details on the mock elections results on their respective websites, or perhaps these were already shared in social media, if not it can be searched through Google.

The results, especially the Cagayan de Oro’s mayoral post, may affirm the assumption that indeed Rodriguez has a strong followers in MUST - given that almost all of the scholar beneficiaries are studying there, not to mention his efforts in improving the the institution itself that led to its university status.

Meanwhile, Moreno’s city scholars are enrolled not just in MUST but also in other colleges and universities in the city. And while he continued the city scholars program from then mayor Vicente Emano, who is also running again for mayor in the city, there is a possibility that other city scholars voted for Emano in these mock polls.

[Email: nefluczon@gmail.com]